CAT

CAT@EMIL

The scientific aim at CAT@EMIL is to study the electronic surface/near surface structure of functional materials in the presence of a reactive environment. This includes both gas/solid interfaces (e.g. heterogeneous catalysis) and liquid/solid interfaces (e.g. catalytic water splitting).

Anwendungsbeispiele:
  • X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) under high vacuum (p=10-10 Pa) and ambient pressure conditions (typically p=100 Pa)
  • X-ray aborption spectroscopy (XAS) at pressure up to 1kPa (up to 1MPa with reaction cell) in NAP-HE-XPS endstation.
Fig. 1: Sketch demonstrating the main components of the AP-HE-XPS (left). Photo of the complete AP-HE-XPS endstation (right, courtesy of Specs GmbH, Berlin)

Fig. 1: Sketch demonstrating the main components of the AP-HE-XPS (left). Photo of the complete AP-HE-XPS endstation (right, courtesy of Specs GmbH, Berlin)


Methods

Time-resolved absorption, NEXAFS, EXAFS, Mass Spectrometry, XPS, NAP-XPS, HAXPES

Remote access

depends on experiment - please discuss with Instrument Scientist

Station data
AP-HE-XPS
Temperature range 25 - 800 °C
Pressure range 10-8 - 20 mbar; typically 1 mbar
Detector 2D CMOS detector (SPECS)
Manipulators various, exchangeable for optimised sample environments
Sample holder compatibility Homemade concept. For details contact the station manager.
Additional equipment gas analytics
• electron impact mass spectrometer (differentially pumped)
• proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS)
• TRACE 1310 gas chromatograph
operated by CE-GKAT / MPI for Chemical Energy Conversion and Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG
Applicable at beamline(s)
UE48_EMIL 80 eV to 2000 eV
CPMU17_EMIL
  • PGM: 700-1600 eV (not available @PINK)
  • DCM: 2200-10000 eV
  • Multilayer mono @PINK: 2300-9500eV
    • Fig. 2: Photo of the main components of the reaction cell

    Fig. 2: Photo of the main components of the reaction cell

    Table. 1: Gas analytics

    Table. 1: Gas analytics


    Ambient pressure - High Energy XPS (AP-HE-XPS)

    The scientific aim at CAT@EMIL is to study the electronic surface/near surface structure of functional materials in the presence of a reactive environment. This includes both gas/solid interfaces (e.g. heterogeneous catalysis) and liquid/solid interfaces (e.g. catalytic water splitting).

    Obviously, the understanding of the interaction of a catalyst surface with the reactants plays a key role in a detailed description of catalytic processes. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a well-established powerful tool to study in detail the outermost surface of solids but it was traditionally restricted to high vacuum and low pressure conditions. However, recently a methodology based on a differentially pumped electrostatic lens system has gained much interest. Such an instrument is operated by the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI-CEC) and the Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG (FHI-MPG) at HZB/BESSY II at the ISISS beamline in the low photon energy range. A further developed set-up is installed at CAT@EMIL. The feasibility to investigate buried layers is added by the extension of the kinetic energy range of photo-electrons to up to 7000eV. A very flexible, modular sample environment has been developed that allows to apply AP-XPS to a huge variety of problems.

    A sketch of the main components of the AP-HE-XPS instrument and a photo of the complete set-up (courtesy of SPECS GmbH, Berlin) is shown as Fig. 1.

    Variable pressure soft X-ray absorption (vP-XAS)

    A variable pressure soft X-ray absorption cell has been constructed by FHI that works in the conversion electron yield detection and total fluorescence yield mode. This reaction cell allows to measure surface sensitive X-ray absorption spectra in a pressure range between 102 - 105 Pa, i.e. up to atmospheric pressure at temperatures up to 400ºC. This low volume reaction cell makes it feasible to study heterogeneous catalytic reactions in a broad pressure range and hence allows to link results obtained with AP-XPS and measurments obtained in a catalytic reactor.

    A photo of the main components of the reaction cell is shown in Fig. 2.